East Salinas teen center will be run by high school and college students.

The after-school program room at the Firehouse Community Center, run by La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), looks like, well, a classroom for an after-school program. A row of computer monitors lines one wall. A metal shelving unit holds board games and toys. Children’s books sit stacked on an orange bookcase. Mismatched couches, chairs and coffee tables fill in the open space. Florescent lights shine onto the gray tile floor.

Today, a CSU Monterey Bay student, an Alisal High School student and a LUPE community organizer sit on the couches and talk about what the room will look like in about a month, when the transformation to teen coffee house and Internet café will be complete.

“Behind us is the kitchen,” says LUPE’s Manuel Rivera, “That’s where everything will be prepared—cappuccino, horchata, whatever food we serve.

“There will be a band playing over there,” he says, pointing to a corner where a wooden stage leans upright against the wall. “These walls are blank right now. But they will have paintings, drawings, something from art students.”

If all goes according to plan, the coffee shop will be up and running in early February. It will be open Fridays, from 6pm to 10pm.

“Depending on how it goes,” Rivera says. “If the students are really jazzed about it, maybe we will open on Saturdays too.”

Michelle Jones, a business major at CSUMB, volunteers at LUPE as part of her service learning class—a program to foster community involvement, which is required for every student at the university. “The youth advisory committee said they don’t want anything involving competition,” Jones says. “They want music playing, dances, karaoke.”

She explains that initially, four high school students will run the place, with a handful of CSUMB students providing supervision. None of the students will get paychecks for their work, but they will receive service-learning hours, at the high school and college level.

Nancy Perez, a senior at Alisal, jumps into the conversation. “It will be a place to hang out, where you feel comfortable, for teens,” she says, “where all the students can come together, from all over Salinas: different students, different races. There will be live music, and students reading their poetry, and putting their art on the walls. It will be by students, for students.”

LUPE, a nonprofit founded by César Chávez in 1989, took over operations at the East Salinas community center in 2004, after the City’s budget crisis prompted officials to cut all funding to the center.

Last year, a student who sat on the LUPE youth advisory committee came up with the novel idea to turn the Firehouse into a teen hangout, Rivera says.

“He felt that we needed more youth-oriented activities in Salinas, other than the movies,” Rivera says. “Somewhere teens could go, to listen to music, in a safe, drug-free environment.”

Partnering with CSUMB, LUPE applied for and received a small seed grant from the Monterey-based Central Coast Children’s Foundation. They’ve been recruiting high school students and seeking donations and all types of supplies ever since.

Perez remembers Rivera talking to her class at Alisal in November. Rivera spoke about the teen coffee house, which would also host dances and movie nights, and showcase student talent in music, dance, poetry, art, or anything else. Students would work at the café—running the cash register, serving food, and booking performers. Perez plans to study business at San Jose State University after she graduates this spring, so the youth coffee house sounded like a good fit.

“This will be hands-on experience,” she says.

Jones says the group has received several key donations—the wooden stage, an espresso machine, coffee cups and stir sticks, couches, table linens, aprons and napkins—but they still need everything from area rugs and lamps to a TV and popcorn machine for movie nights, as well as a chalk board, food items, plates. “Little things that cost money,” Rivera says.

“We should be ready by the end of January,” Jones says, “and hopefully, a February opening. We still need to train students, do a dry run. It’s like opening any other business.”

She clasps her hands together and looks upwards. “Hopefully students will come.”

But once the three get started talking about their hopes and dreams for the coffee shop, it almost seems that their enthusiasm alone could bring teens through the Firehouse doors.

“As soon as we get this going,” Rivera says, “and we have a few students coming, then they will tell more students…”

Adds Jones: “We hope it will be successful and a model for other communities—a great, fun, safe place.”

Rivera: “Drug and alcohol free.”

Perez: “What if it’s so successful that we don’t all fit in here?”

They smile at the possibility. That would be a good problem for the coffee house.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO DONATE SUPPLIES TO THE LUPE CAFÉ, CALL MANUEL RIVERA AT 424-4100 OR VISIT WWW.LUPENET.ORG.